August 9, 2016

BREAKING: Sen. Susan Collins Not Backing Trump

Just published a WaPo op-wd, not endorsing Clinton either:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gop-senator-why-i-cannot-support-trump/2016/08/08/821095be-5d7e-11e6-9d2f-b1a3564181a1_story.html

I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country.
....

August 6, 2016

Questions raised about Melania's marriage history (Univision)

In an interview with Larry King Live in 2005 Melania Trump said that she had never been married before meeting Donald Trump.

But, Michael Wildes, an immigration attorney who worked for the Trump Organization, told Univision's investigative unit that she obtained a green card four years earlier in 2001, “based on marriage.”

http://www.univision.com/univision-news/politics/questions-raised-about-melanias-marriage-history

This is just breaking. Batten down the hatches. Could be bulllshit. Could be yuuuuge.

Never forget this bastard was a leading birther.

Also covered at:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/new-report-raises-questions-about-melania-trumps-past-green-card-status/

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/290608-immigration-lawyer-raises-questions-about-melania-trumps

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/trump-lawyer-turned-hillary-backer-melania-had-green-card-from-prior-marriage/

July 26, 2016

Anastasia Somoza DNC speech on disability issues

This one had my family punching the air and crying at the same time. Hillary needs to make an ad out of this fantastically eloquent woman's incredible speech.

I felt it needed to be reposted today, as it is being overlooked a bit given the incredible prime time speeches. This was every bit as powerful as all but Michelle's speech (OMG) on our in-house applause meter.

July 23, 2016

Trump & Putin. Yes, It's Really a Thing - Josh Marshall

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-putin-yes-it-s-really-a-thing

Read it. Devastating implications for Trump.

"Over the last year there has been a recurrent refrain about the seeming bromance between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. More seriously, but relatedly, many believe Trump is an admirer and would-be emulator of Putin's increasingly autocratic and illiberal rule. But there's quite a bit more to the story. At a minimum, Trump appears to have a deep financial dependence on Russian money from persons close to Putin. And this is matched to a conspicuous solicitousness to Russian foreign policy interests where they come into conflict with US policies which go back decades through administrations of both parties. There is also something between a non-trivial and a substantial amount of evidence suggesting Putin-backed financial support of Trump or a non-tacit alliance between the two men."
...

More:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-putin-yes-it-s-really-a-thing

March 17, 2016

Queens Man Is Arrested After Grandson Brings a Loaded Pistol to School (NYT)

A 54-year-old Queens man was arrested after his grandson brought his loaded handgun to school in his backpack, the police said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, police officers were called shortly after 1 p.m. to Public School 40, an elementary school on Union Hall Street in the Jamaica neighborhood, after faculty members discovered the gun and called 911, the authorities said.

The student, an 11-year-old boy in fifth grade, had a loaded Hi-Point 9-millimeter pistol in his backpack, the authorities said.

http://nytimes.com/2016/03/17/nyregion/queens-man-is-arrested-after-his-grandson-brings-a-loaded-pistol-to-school.html

#gunfail #armthechildren #lolgunskeepussafe

As I frequently say on DU, I believe parents (or grandparents) whose kids gain unsupervised access to their guns even once need to lose their kids or their visitation/access to their kids. And their guns and gun "rights" for life. Luckily, this being NYC, this grandad likely faces jail time for owning the illegal gun in the first place, but this is exactly how Sandy Hook and Columbine were facilitated by parents, out of ignorance or malice or stupidity or all three doesn't matter. Your gun threatens MY kids if you let children get near it.

A reminder because it's true: last year toddlers "accidentally" killed more Americans than "terrorists" but then, I say the gun nutter parents of these homicidal children *are* terrorists.

March 13, 2016

The macabre truth of gun control in the US is that toddlers kill more people than terrorists

This week, in my country, considered by some of its more embarrassing denizens to be the “greatest country in the world”, an outspoken Florida “gun rights” advocate left a loaded .45 calibre handgun in the back seat of her car and was promptly shot and wounded by her four-year-old child. Truly a pinnacle of human potential, much like the invention of paper in second-century BC China, or Aristotle holding forth in the Lyceum, or whoever first pointed out that Florida looks like America’s penis.

....

In the US in 2015, more people were shot and killed by toddlers than by terrorists. In 2013, the New York Times reported on children shot by other children: “Children shot accidentally – usually by other children – are collateral casualties of the accessibility of guns in America, their deaths all the more devastating for being eminently preventable.

.....

States with more guns have more gun deaths. Keeping a gun in your house increases your chances of accidental death by shooting, but does not make you safer. A woman’s chance of being murdered by an abusive partner increases fivefold if the partner has access to a gun. “Good guys with guns” are a fantasy. How much longer will we keep participating in this great collective lie that deadly weapons keep us safe?

.....

The accidental shooting of Jamie Gilt is the object lesson that my absurd nation deserves. When even supposed gun safety experts cannot keep themselves safe from their own toddlers, we should take that as an unequivocal reminder that guns are inherently dangerous. They are exploding projectile machines designed specifically for killing. And that’s not bleeding-heart hyperbole – it’s the explicit reason why many people are drawn to them. Cowboy games. Vigilante justice. Power.

More at:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/13/the-macabre-truth-of-gun-control-in-the-us-is-that-toddlers-kill-more-people-than-terrorists-do
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The way things are going we will need to arm every child to prevent her getting shot by another kid. Nothing stops a bad toddler with a gun like a good toddler with a gun.


#gunfail #warontoddlers

March 3, 2016

Man Taking Selfies With Gun Fatally Shoots Himself

CONCRETE, Wash. (AP) — A 43-year-old man has died after authorities say he accidentally shot himself in the face while taking selfies.

The Skagit Valley Herald reports the man and his girlfriend were photographing themselves with the weapon. ...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/sheriff-man-with-selfies-fatally-shoots-himself

We clearly have a problem with too many cell phones in the USA!

LOL. #GunFail

February 18, 2016

Man fatally shoots self while hunting coyotes

A 67-year-old man fatally shot himself Monday in a hunting accident while trying to protect his chickens from coyotes, according to a statement from the Lapeer County Sheriff Department.
The man was found dead in a wooded area of his residence in Oregon Township shortly after 10:15 a.m. Monday.
The man had been hunting coyotes for about a week after hearing the animals and fearing they posed a threat to his chickens. The man fell from a tree stand while holding a loaded shotgun, according to the statement.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/02/16/man-falls-hunting-coyotes-dies-gunshot/80442822/